No room for fear

You’ve heard it said, “no guts, no glory?” In open innovation, there is no room for fear.

Many companies today are averse to taking risks in this economy, and who can blame them? When leaders are not willing to take risks, their corporate culture might seem “safe.”

But managing risks is something we can all do well, with the right culture, systems and tools in place. I tell companies to boldly embrace disruption, especially in their existing internal processes.

The goal is not to upset the applecart, but to look for more apples, in new talents, technologies, skills and partners. We also must embrace the possibility of failure, and encourage risk taking within reason. Going back to building trust in your organization, you have to encourage innovators on your team to learn from their mistakes and succeed from failure.